A student of uncommon courage

[Guest Guest]

Sean Hannity is an obnoxious ass who gets his way by brute force. He constantly interrupts people and personally assaults and attacks them. Matt wanted to go on the show, but there was no reason to subject him to that. Besides, how do you know Hannity wouldn't have agreed with him?

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"Obnoxious ass" ?? Funny, that's how I would describe you.

[Strife767]

"Obnoxious ass" ??  Funny, that's how I would describe you.

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lol, wow.

Can't wait 'til the school year starts again.

[Guest Guest]

"Obnoxious ass" ??  Funny, that's how I would describe you.

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Of course you would. Paul was supposed to go away and leave you right-wingers to have this site for yourselves so you could re-invent history. Your tactics are straight out of Orwell. You didn't get your way, so you call names, despite the fact that he has been far more kind and far more coherent in his approach to this matter than you have. All of which just proves his point, yet again, that for you right-wingers the whole universe is a function of what you choose to believe. If you'll notice, he isn't the one who has been opening topics lately, and the one he did open recently was in response to an attack. If you want this to stop, then stop, but I don't get the feeling that he's just going to let you have your way and change the facts of the case.

[Guest Melanie]

Because you were affraid Hannity would put him in his place.

That is the reason why you only choose to go to on interviews with liberal places. Because there you and your son are called HEROES  

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Matthew LaClair kicked your sorry, soggy behinds from one end of this country to the other and all over the world, and the only pathetic comeback you can muster is a fantasy about how a long-time professional hatchet man with his own TV show, complete control over the microphone and complete control over the aired product if he chose to have it edited, could supposedly take down a sixteen-year-old kid, even assuming that Hannity agreed with you. Wow, I'm really impressed.

[Bern]

Matthew LaClair kicked your sorry, soggy behinds from one end of this country to the other and all over the world, and the only pathetic comeback you can muster is a fantasy about how a long-time professional hatchet man with his own TV show, complete control over the microphone and complete control over the aired product if he chose to have it edited, could supposedly take down a sixteen-year-old kid, even assuming that Hannity agreed with you. Wow, I'm really impressed.

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Wow. Really well put.

[Guest Guest]

Matthew LaClair kicked your sorry, soggy behinds from one end of this country to the other and all over the world, and the only pathetic comeback you can muster is a fantasy about how a long-time professional hatchet man with his own TV show, complete control over the microphone and complete control over the aired product if he chose to have it edited, could supposedly take down a sixteen-year-old kid, even assuming that Hannity agreed with you. Wow, I'm really impressed.

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It's funny what you consider an ass kicking.

[Guest Paul]

It's funny what you consider an ass kicking.

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When people all over the world are calling you ignorant and wondering how people living ten miles outside Manhattan can be so backward; when well-known people from both sides of politics line up to applaud and commend the person who is kicking your ass, I'd call that an ass-kicking. What's your definition?

[Strife767]

It's funny what you consider an ass kicking.

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Spin it anyway you like, a teacher who has been teaching for barely fewer years than the student's been alive, was exposed and outsmarted for all the world to see by a teenager.

[Guest Guest]

When people all over the world are calling you ignorant and wondering how people living ten miles outside Manhattan can be so backward; when well-known people from both sides of politics line up to applaud and commend the person who is kicking your ass, I'd call that an ass-kicking. What's your definition?

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I call it you admitting what this is really all about.

[Guest Guest]

Spin it anyway you like, a teacher who has been teaching for barely fewer years than the student's been alive, was exposed and outsmarted for all the world to see by a teenager.

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Yes, quite sneaky wasn't he.

[Strife767]

Yes, quite sneaky wasn't he.

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No, actually. The teacher just severely underestimated him. Not only that, but if the teacher wasn't being underhanded to begin with, he wouldn't have even tried to lie his way out of what he was doing. But Matthew had him pegged, and was always a step ahead, backing himself up with evidence. The only "sneaky" person was the teacher who tried to use his leverage (being more likely to be believed in a 'he said she said' situation, I mean) as a teacher in a "teacher vs. student" conflict to weasel his way out of fessing up to his Constitutional violation.

Also, if he really thought he was doing nothing wrong (which has been his 'official' statement on the matter), why wouldn't he tell the truth about what he said at that meeting? It's clear that he felt those words were worth hiding, so he must have known he did wrong.

[Strife767]

"People For The American Way"  ??  A radical left bunch of Kool-aiders.

  "Freedom From Religion Foundation" ?? A Loony bunch of atheists.

    If you were any kind of responsible parent, you wouldn't let your kid anywhere near them.

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"My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can." --Frank Zappa

[Guest Paul]

Yes, quite sneaky wasn't he.

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Yes, it was very sneaky of the teacher to go behind the administration's back and misuse his classroom to engage in improper conduct, knowing that he had pied-pipered nearly a generation of teenagers who would back up every lie he decided to tell. Sneaky and despicable. And at long last he got busted.

I'm very sorry now that I gave this man the benefit of the doubt. If I had known that the defense of this teacher, and his own behavior, would have been so stubborn, I would have pressed for his firing.

[Guest Guest]

"My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can." --Frank Zappa

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I can only reply to this with:

Moon Unit, Dweezil, and Diva Muffin

[Guest Patriot]

"My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can." --Frank Zappa

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Yes, I can see how you would quote a coke head.

[Guest Paul]

I call it you admitting what this is really all about.

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I didn't ask anyone to act like a backwoods idiot.

[Strife767]

Yes, I can see how you would quote a coke head.

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I don't know or care what drugs he did or didn't do--the point is the same regardless of who says it.

[Guest Guest]

Yes, I can see how you would quote a coke head.

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At least he wasn't a pedophile, a closet homosexual or worse......a hypocrite.

[Guest I've got no eyebrows!]

I don't know or care what drugs he did or didn't do--the point is the same regardless of who says it.

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"The whole Universe is a large joke. Everything in the Universe are just subdivisions of this joke. So why take anything too serious."

- Frank Zappa

because remember kids... "The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese."

-Frank Zappa

"I'll give you a simple formula for straightening out the problems of the United States. First, you tax the churches. You take the tax off of capital gains and the tax off of savings. You decriminalize all drugs and tax them same way as you do alcohol. You decriminalize prostitution. You make gambling legal. That will put the budget back on the road to recovery, and you'll have plenty of tax revenue coming in for all of your social programs, and to run the army."

- Frank Zappa

MY POINT IS THIS {sorry} (ahem) - Zappa said a lot o' stuff, but I want you to remember this... "Everyone in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself." - Frank Zappa

..... I'll leave you with this, (I could go on forever because the man was a true visionary for our time)..... "Great googly-moogly... - Frank Z.

the point is the same..........

[Guest 2smart4u]

"The whole Universe is a large joke.  Everything in the Universe are just subdivisions of this joke.  So why take anything too serious."

- Frank Zappa

because remember kids...  "The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese."

-Frank Zappa

"I'll give you a simple formula for straightening out the problems of the United States. First, you tax the churches. You take the tax off of capital gains and the tax off of savings. You decriminalize all drugs and tax them same way as you do alcohol. You decriminalize prostitution. You make gambling legal. That will put the budget back on the road to recovery, and you'll have plenty of tax revenue coming in for all of your social programs, and to run the army."

- Frank Zappa

MY POINT IS THIS {sorry} (ahem) - Zappa said a lot o' stuff, but I want you to remember this... "Everyone in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself."  - Frank Zappa

..... I'll leave you with this, (I could go on forever because the man was a true visionary for our time).....  "Great googly-moogly... - Frank Z.

the point is the same..........

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"true visionary for our time" ?? You have no clue. Zappa was a drug addict who was stoned most of the time, as you were when you typed that nonsense.

[Guest Paul]

"The whole Universe is a large joke.  Everything in the Universe are just subdivisions of this joke.  So why take anything too serious."

- Frank Zappa

because remember kids...  "The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese."

-Frank Zappa

"I'll give you a simple formula for straightening out the problems of the United States. First, you tax the churches. You take the tax off of capital gains and the tax off of savings. You decriminalize all drugs and tax them same way as you do alcohol. You decriminalize prostitution. You make gambling legal. That will put the budget back on the road to recovery, and you'll have plenty of tax revenue coming in for all of your social programs, and to run the army."

- Frank Zappa

MY POINT IS THIS {sorry} (ahem) - Zappa said a lot o' stuff, but I want you to remember this... "Everyone in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself."  - Frank Zappa

..... I'll leave you with this, (I could go on forever because the man was a true visionary for our time).....  "Great googly-moogly... - Frank Z.

the point is the same..........

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Frank Zappa was/is plenty wacky in a lot of ways, but he understood the absurdities of our culture and he made a lot of money putting that to music in the 60s and 70s. Even a loony is capable of being right sometimes.

All this mini-discussion illustrates is the inability of many in the religious right to see shades; they insist everything is black and white. Thus, if Frank Zappa was off-the-wall, no one should quote anything he ever said or wrote, even if it was brilliant. I disagree. Wit offered by a bizarre individual is still wit, and one thing Zappa isn't is stupid.

[Guest Guest]

No, actually. The teacher just severely underestimated him. Not only that, but if the teacher wasn't being underhanded to begin with, he wouldn't have even tried to lie his way out of what he was doing. But Matthew had him pegged, and was always a step ahead, backing himself up with evidence. The only "sneaky" person was the teacher who tried to use his leverage (being more likely to be believed in a 'he said she said' situation, I mean) as a teacher in a "teacher vs. student" conflict to weasel his way out of fessing up to his Constitutional violation.

Also, if he really thought he was doing nothing wrong (which has been his 'official' statement on the matter), why wouldn't he tell the truth about what he said at that meeting? It's clear that he felt those words were worth hiding, so he must have known he did wrong.

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All he had to do was put the recording device on his desk. But that woldn't have gotten the result he was after. Case closed.

[Strife767]

All he had to do was put the recording device on his desk.  But that woldn't have gotten the result he was after.

Correct, but not for the reason you'd like. You are correct because if he had made it obvious, Paszkiewicz simply would have stopped in that class, but not in any others. If Matthew's problem was personal offense, he probably would have done just that, and it would have worked just fine. But this was not an issue of personal offense--he wanted the unconstitutional teaching methods to stop entirely. That was "the result he was after," and simply pressuring Paszkiewicz to 'watch out in this one class' would not have done a thing toward that end.

Analogously, this is the same reason corporal punishment ultimately doesn't work--instead of stopping the undesired behavior entirely, the child will simply learn to do whatever it is when the parent is not around.

Why Matthew did things the way he did and not the way you suggested is very obvious, except to those (you included, no doubt) who pre-assign straw man motives and personality to Matthew. His motives as said by him and his actions line up perfectly; there is no discrepancy.

As long as people like you are foolish to continue thinking this was something as trivial as a disagreement on faith, you will continue to think that stuff like the above would have been the obvious solution. But it isn't about Matthew having a personal problem or disagreement with the stuff being said in the class--it's about the fact that Paszkiewicz was violating the Constitution in a way so blatant that he surmised (CORRECTLY, I might add) that he needed to covertly get evidence in order to prove what was going on, and prevent his teacher from trying to weasel out of it by denying his statements.

[Guest PBB]

All he had to do was put the recording device on his desk.  But that woldn't have gotten the result he was after.  Case closed.

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That's right. It wouldn't have put Paszkiewicz in his cage. Case closed.

[billydee4]

That's right. It wouldn't have put Paszkiewicz in his cage. Case closed.

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In his cage?

Imagine this, if a thief has a record for robbing convenience stores and he wants to rob another. He goes into the store and sees that there are a few police officers in the store. Does he go ahead and try to rob that store? No he simply finds another convenient store to rob.